The Role
London Fire Brigade is currently recruiting strategic roles to the rank of Assistant Commissioner.
London Fire Brigade is one of the largest fire and rescue services in the world, serving a complex and dynamic city. London has almost 9 million people living in it and the City of Westminster alone has a population density of over 100 times the national average. At 6 per cent, London still has one of the highest population growth rates of any United Kingdom region in the last five years. London’s skyline has changed from a sprawling low-rise city to a high-rise metropolis, home to 70% of England’s high-rise buildings. London also has significant transport infrastructure which serves hundreds of millions of people every day. There are over 300 different languages spoken in London which makes it the most diverse city in the world, where 40 per cent of its population identify as non-white.
As part of our Community Risk Management Plan for 2023 to 2029, Your London Fire Brigade, we are changing and transforming how we work to ensure that London’s communities continue to get the services they need between 2023 and 2029. Through our plan we will do more to focus our resources on the vulnerable and continue to prioritise attendance times and getting our first fire engine to an incident in under six minutes on average. We will also be with our communities more in outreach work, providing support after an incident and also enabling communities to use fire stations as their own. We will also be modernising our online services to ensure Londoners can get the advice they need.
The Role
Working with the London Fire Commissioner and Directors, Assistant Commissioners are key leaders in ensuring that the London Fire Brigade is trusted to serve and protect London. Assistant Commissioners deliver this by ensuring the Brigade is a dynamic, forward-looking organisation of fully engaged people at the centre of the communities we serve, adapting to the needs of London. You would be joining during an exciting time of transformation, where you would be responsible for the delivery of the London Fire Commissioners strategic aims of:
• Placing a premium on leadership skills and investing in leadership at all levels.
• Fostering and embedding a culture of togetherness so that every member of staff feels respected and valued regardless of their gender, sexuality, colour of skin, race or religion and that everyone feels able to bring their whole self to work, feeling a sense of belonging in the Brigade because they can be themselves.
• Developing the Brigade’s long-term strategy to become a forward-thinking service led organisation, with communities at the heart of its delivery, prioritising the development, launch and delivery its Community Risk Management Plan.
• Building on the Brigade’s improvement plans deliver continuous improvement across its operational and support functions ensuring excellence and efficiency in everything it delivers.
Your valuable skills and knowledge will be developed and challenged as you embark on helping us to drive change, innovation, and continuous improvement. Assistant Commissioners are responsible for planning, directing, and delivering the services provided by a department ensuring continual improvement in efficiency and performance and compliance with regulations and the law. To play a full leadership role within the LFC as a member of the appropriate Directorate Management Team and Corporate Heads of Service Group. To be a member of the Assistant Commissioner’s operational rota, available to undertake the duties and responsibilities of the Duty Brigade Manager and be mobilised to operational incidents to perform the strategic incident command function and/or represent the London Fire Brigade as its nominated ‘Gold’ Commander.
Eligibility
To be eligible to apply for this rank you must:
• Be a competent Deputy Assistant Commissioner/Area Manager who has demonstrated competence against the requirements of the Deputy Assistant Commissioner role map in an operational post. External candidates will also need to be serving as a wholetime competent Deputy Assistant Commissioner/Area Manager in a local government brigade.
• Hold a full UK driving licence.
• Be Level 3 Incident Command qualified and in ticket - Level 6 Award in Advanced Incident Command in Fire and Rescue Services*.
• Be Level 4 Incident Command qualified and in ticket - Level 7 Award in Strategic Incident Command in Fire and Rescue Services*.
* Where you cannot demonstrate to have the required Incident Command qualifications, you will need to successfully undertake a Level 3 incident command assessment as a minimum, followed by a Level 4 acquisition course, (a Level 7 Award in Strategic Incident Command in Fire and Rescue Services qualification).
Assessment Overview
Internal candidates - before submission of your application you will be required to undertake a professional development discussion for your line managers to support your application. Please factor this into your timeline.
How to apply
Please complete the online application form and upload all the documents you will need to submit with your application form. Your application should include:
1. Your CV
Please include your current or most recent salary, and the name and contact details of two referees, one of whom must be your current line manager.
2. Proof of the required Incident Command qualifications (please refer to the above eligibility section to see the qualifications you need to upload).
3. Your personal statement evidencing suitability to be considered for the role of Assistant Commissioner. Your statement should not exceed 1,000 words. In the application form, four text boxes are available for you to type your statement (You are allowed 4,000 characters per text box).
Please ensure you give yourself enough time to complete and submit your application. Late or un-submitted applications cannot be accepted.
Any correspondence received from us will be via e-mail and sent to the address you provide on your application form.
Application closing date: 4 PM on 15 September 2023.
The assessment process will comprise the following four stages with expected timeframes.
Stage 1 (w/c 18 September 2023)
Initial shortlisting based on your CV and personal statement. This will decide if you go forward to the next stage of the assessment process. This is a sift.
Stage 2 (w/c 02 October 2023)
Initial Sift Interview and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Exercise. This is a sift.
The interview will be based on the contents of your CV/supporting statement and allow you to expand on your relevant knowledge, skills, and experience at AC level. A minimum of 70% is required. These short-listing (Initial Sift) interviews will last no longer than 30 minutes.
The EDI assessment is included so you can demonstrate your commitment to, and knowledge of diversity and inclusion. Fore more information, please refer to the EDI assessment guidance document attached. Candidates will be required to achieve 75% or above.
Stage 3 (mid-October 2023)
Incident Command Exercise (ICE) (for those who will need to sit this element).
Successful candidates from the previous stage will be invited to an Incident Command Exercise. 75% or above is required. Those candidates that successfully complete all of the remaining stages and are deemed promotable will be enrolled on the level 4 incident command acquisition course.
Stage 4 (late-October 2023)
Stakeholder Panel Interview, Main Panel Structured Interview (a score of at least 70%) and a Presentation.
Stakeholder Panel Interview will consist of selected stakeholders who will be invited to
participate in an informal interview of the candidates. They will then give their thoughts and
feedback to the main panel for their consideration. Records of notes will be kept for audit
purposes, but the Stakeholder Interview is not part of the sift process.
Main Panel Structured Interview questions will be based on the LFB Behaviours and will be relevant to the AC role and will provide an opportunity to the candidate to describe the experience, knowledge, and skills they have developed in that role in temporary positions or through acting up. Structured Interviews at AC rank will last no more than 60 minutes.
The presentation will be unseen and based on a relevant topic, given to candidates on the day. Candidates will have 50 minutes preparation time before delivering a 10-minute presentation.
If you are unable to attend the scheduled assessment dates provided, we may not be able to make alternative arrangements.
Please note that the Policy 497 Assessment and development centre review process does not apply to this assessment process.
Additional Information
The Person specification:
• An experienced operational fire officer competent and substantive at Deputy Assistant Commissioner or Area Manager level serving in a local authority service.
• A proven track record of successfully delivering change in a large and complex service in a safety critical environment.
• An ability to turn innovative concepts into a working reality.
• A proven track record of supporting diversity and inclusion, driving cultural change within the fire service.
• The ability and sensitivity to work in a fast-paced multi-stakeholder environment and develop strategic partnerships to improve performance.
• The ability to develop and implement departmental strategy and long-term plans.
Are you ready to elevate your career to the next level and join us during this dynamic time of development?
Please note that whilst the advert is live, we will be running a Q and A session via Teams w/c 11 September 2023. The primary purpose of this session is to talk about the role in more depth and some of the benefits. If you like to attend, please send an email to assessmentcentre@london-fire.gov.uk to express your interest in attending the session.
For instructions and other information about the role, please download documents attached to this vacancy.
We value the diversity of our employees, and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects our diverse communities across London. The London Fire Commissioner is an Equal Opportunities Employer and we positively welcome applications from all suitably qualified individuals, irrespective of people's age, disability, gender, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances. We have guidance in place to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process, including the consideration of reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability.
In line with the Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) employment checks will be completed by successful candidates, which will include a basic criminal records check. Successful candidate will be required to declare any convictions for offences which are not spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and any offer of employment is subject to the LFC receiving a criminal records disclosure which it considers satisfactory. Successful candidates should apply to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) to get a copy of their criminal record and share the original disclosure certificate with the LFC. The check will only show convictions that are not ‘spent’. It will cost the successful candidates £18 (current charge) and usually takes up to 14 days.
You will find information about the London Fire Brigade on our website, in particular the ‘About us’ page: http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/AboutUs.asp
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